Listen
by CameoAmalthea
Summary: Focuses on Luke Campbell and his thoughts and feelings during the event of Trust and Blood.


He knew she wasn't listening, so why bother?

She never listened, and Luke had given up on expecting anything different. So he'd given up on trying to explain, and settled for shrugging. That didn't make her happy, but nothing he said would have either. What was he supposed to say? Was there some magic word that would make her just shut up.

Oh he knew everything she would say. That he was going end up in jail that he wasn't going to amount to anything, it was the same old thing again and again. He'd say whatever he thought she wanted to hear, lying was the easiest way.

He couldn't go into it. That what, he hated everything about his life, and that everyone hated him. She 'd deny hating him, the same way she'd insist that she was listening every time Luke tried to tell her how much she didn't get it.

Nothing ever changed.

But then, stepping into the house, everything did, because he was there.

It all happened so quickly, he and his mother forced into separate chairs, hearing that the man intended to torture them. Luke was terrified, but also relieved, because for the first time in his life he wasn't alone.

Luke was a no one, no body, a nothing. He didn't fit anywhere, or belong anywhere. He wasn't even human, not with what he could do. The truth was Luke had felt like that long before he knew he had a power.

At that moment, though, when the intruder bound them to chairs, he knew he wasn't the only one. And despite the fact that he was probably going to die, knowing that he wasn't such a freak was almost worth it.

So was it really so surprising that he chose to follow him? Sylar: that was the name he'd given him, when Luke realized he didn't even know it. Luke hadn't questioned it, after all, a god shouldn't have an ordinary name, and to him Sylar was more god than man. The things he could do.

It wasn't just his power that drew Luke to him. It was that Sylar was the only one who really understood. He could cut through all Luke's bull shit, he saw him, really saw him.

Besides, he couldn't have stayed with his mom anymore. The way she looked at him after he'd killed that guy.

Killed…he'd really done it. He was a murdered, and when his mother looked at him, all she saw was a monster.

Luke had tried to explain, but she wasn't listening, she never did.

She didn't care that he was just trying to protect Sylar, that was all, he hadn't meant for it to go so far. It happened all too fast. His mom hadn't even cared that Luke had put himself on the line to protect her. He'd saved her, using his gift, moving against Sylar when he had.

It was like waving a red flag in front of a bull, look over here, not at her. When he met those dark eyes, Luke had felt like a mouse staring down a tiger. There was hunger there. He he'd thought at the time that the man would kill him, that look in his eyes.

He'd been afraid then, and even when he chased after him begging.

"I let you live." So they were even. So he might have planned to kill him along. So he might change his mind even now.

Luke didn't care. It didn't matter. Because he had Sylar's attention, because Sylar listened, and Sylar understood.

When he looked at that man, Luke saw what he wanted to be, he saw where he belonged. He would do anything for him, just to be with him.

He knew what Sylar wanted, to find his father. Their father? Is that what Sylar thought? It wasn't true, Luke knew it couldn't be. Luke was a nobody. But either way he'd help Sylar, in any way he could. He'd already stolen his mother's keys, he thought ahead. He knew what to offer, and what to say.

He also knew that Sylar might kill him, that Sylar was evil, was power, was a god who could destroy him. Still he'd go with him, because he belonged there. As they drove off together Luke felt like he belonged, after years of wishing to be anywhere else or be anyone else, he was happy just to stay. Because he wasn't alone, and because when he spoke, he knew Sylar was listening.


End file.
